Welcome to The Bureau. We have set up this dedicated COVID-19 page to keep you up-to-date about support and volunteering opportunities available during this extraordinary period.
We cannot thank enough those 100 or more people for coming forward to volunteer during this time of national crisis. Everyone at The Bureau feels proud to have been able to bridge the gap and have supported the delivery of food parcels, pick up and drop of prescriptions and provided telephone support to the most vulnerable and isolated during this difficult time, and it wouldn’t have been possible without your offer. As we move forward statutory agencies will be providing support to people who are vulnerable and isolated during this COVID-19 Crisis and the COVID-19 specific volunteering activity of The Bureau to be reduced in scale significantly.
The NHS is now where we recommend anyone wanting to volunteer specifically in support of the COVID-19 crisis to sign up to as they have national resources and infrastructure; for example they can negotiate directly with supermarket chains and other providers. The NHS GoodSAM app will connect you with local requests for shopping, transport, medication and more. You can sign up for the service and download the app here: https://www.goodsamapp.org/NHS (UPDATE – the NHS national volunteer scheme via the GoodSam app is currently closed to new volunteer offers there being 750,000 people having come forward. Please therefore sign up to DCC’s Volunteer Scheme)
Similarly we are seeing Derbyshire County Council develop their hubs which will provide food shopping and delivery, checking up on people who are isolated with a phone call or online to check whether there is anything they need and collecting and delivering prescriptions. You can sign up to be a DCC volunteer here: https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/social-health/health-and-wellbeing/health-protection/disease-control/coronavirus/community-response-unit/if-you-want-to-volunteer/if-you-want-to-volunteer.aspx
Our telephone befriending support will continue to keep those self-isolating and lonely socially connected, and that will slowly become The Bureau’s a key activity.
The situation nationally and locally is changing rapidly day to day, please check our Updates secton on our website and Facebook page for updates. For any volunteering enquiries please email us volunteer@the-bureau.org.uk or call us 01457 865722. Our dedicated COVID-19 volunteer page is still accessible HERE
Please check back for further updates!
23.04.2020
Self-Referral to NHS Volunteer Responders
02.04.2020
Closing recruitment of COVID-19 volunteers
We have been overwhelmed by those getting in touch to help the community and support people during this crisis. In order for everyone’s efforts to be better coordinated, we are now asking new volunteers to register with the NHS’s national volunteer scheme via the GoodSam app or alternatively with Derbyshire County Council’s Community Response Unit scheme.
24.03.2020
Changes to the way we are supporting the community
Due to the demand and restriction announced by the Government last night we are changing the support we are able to offer:
- We will no longer be able to provide bespoke shopping support, instead providing a pre-packaged £15 bag of essential non-perishable food goods including soup, cereal, crackers, spaghetti bolognese , rice pudding, biscuits etc. These bags are to support the most vulnerable and those that cannot get out of the house whilst reducing risk to those people volunteering.
- We continue to support with the delivery of prescriptions where possible and are working with the NHS and local pharmacies on how we can support their delivery system that is seeing significant demand.
- We continue to connect people willing to provide a friendly listening ear to those socially isolated, anxious and lonely people who would benefit from a social befriending phone-call.
23.03.2020
Building now closed to public. Phone lines remain open!
Our community hub /office will close to the public from tomorrow (Tuesday 24th March) for your protection and the protection of our staff/volunteers.
We are still operating and providing practical and emotional community support during this coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak.
Our telephone line remains open 01457 865722 – 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Voicemail and emails will be picked up and responded to.
20.03.2020
Building remain open and are actively support our community
Our community hub /office remains open, but for your protection and the protection of our staff/volunteers please consider your need to visit our building.
We are moving all of our focus to providing practical and emotional community support during this coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak.
17.03.2020
Suspension of all group sessions and home visits
This has been decided because many of the people who use our services are considered to be in the ‘at risk’ group and we want to ensure that we are not putting anyone at risk. Our Board of Trustees has therefore suspended the following:
- All group sessions
- All home visits including volunteers and staff
- External group bookings (Please contact us for more details)
- Our minibus for groups.